TRP: Larkin and Nico (Natural Curiosity)
JEN Day 241, Skyport, the Crooked Coin Larkin sat in the dark, feeling every bit like a stage play assassin while she drew a whetstone along the edge of her hematite blade. It didn’t need sharpening but the soft scraping had something ominous, yet soothing. Together with the small sliver of moonlight glinting off it, she knew it would have the desired effect once… Nico? Once Nico got back to his room. Tazu had been hepful enough finding Nico, telling Larkin all about his recent check-ins. Not many of them pale pretty boy with a pet raven; not many of them pretty either. She hadn’t had to ask for a key to his room. She knew she could get in anyway, and Tazu likely knew it, too. He’d given her his usual smile and tried to sell her some brandy. (Which she hadn’t taken. Unashamedly overpriced stuff, likely pilfered from the Basha’s scattered stashes,) Larkin considered Nico while she waited. Weird, quiet fellow, showing up out of nowhere and busting Bala’s ass together with the Runners. Got a nice blast, that one, and he seemed to know how to keep his mouth shut. Both traits she valued in a guy. And, even better, he didn’t seem to have a job yet. Maybe that’d change tonight. First, though, Larkin needed him to talk. LINA Nico paused outside the door of his room, an unexpected sound making the hair on his neck stand on end. Scrape. Scrape. He retreated to the end of the hallway and unlatched a small window. Coal hopped off his shoulder and flew outside, and Nico closed his eyes to see through hers. She perched on the ledge outside his room and peered through the window. Nico recognized the tiefling who sat on his bed. Larkin. Sharpening a knife, which was the source of the scraping sound, from the looks of it. He swallowed and summoned Coal back to him, then walked reluctantly to his door. These Graverunners. He trusted Ombre, so he thought he should probably trust Ombre's opinion of them, but hell. Some of them hadn't made the best impression on him. He tried his door handle and found it unlocked, unsurprisingly. Holding his staff close, he opened the door and stepped inside. "Hello," he said. JEN Larkin stopped sharpening the knife and sat up straight, half a smile on her face. "Hello. Really made me wait, didn't you?" LINA "Um." Nico never really knew how to talk to these sorts of people. "Do you need something?" JEN "Sure do, buddy." She pointed the knife at him, then at a chair. "You over there. Let's have a chat." LINA Nico considered telling her off--telling her to leave, maybe making his point a little clearer with some magic--but he didn't want to escalate things just yet. If she just wanted to talk, he supposed he could give her that. He sat down in the chair. JEN He did what she told him to, without balking. Promising. Larkin took a moment to stow the whetstone, then got up and leaned against the wall opposite from him. Close enough to the window that she'd be able to make an exit quickly, but a far less threatening distance from Nico. He'd earned that much. "I was wondering who exactly you are and what your deal is. Helping out with Bala the other day? That was great." She nodded. "Still. Doesn't really tell me much about you, and I like knowing 'bout people." LINA "Oh. Um." He wrung his hands on the staff. "Well, my name is Nico. I moved to Skyport a year ago with my sister. She works in the Crooked Coin so we've been staying here." That was enough information, he figured. JEN "Nico what? Where'd you come from and why?" LINA "Nico Peika. We came from Shou Leng, because our parents died and we needed a way to earn money, so we've been traveling." JEN Well, that sounded fair enough. The answer came quickly, too, so either it was true or a really well rehearsed lie. Didn't sound like one, though. "Travelling doing what? People don't usually earn money just by walking around. What've you been doing?" Larkin kept watching him intently, thumb of one hand absently playing with the edge of her blade. LINA "G-gambling." Coal shifted her feet on his shoulder. "Waitressing, for my sister." JEN "Huh." Larkin tilted her head and her thumb stopped caressing the knife. "A gambler, huh? I like that. You good? Or you a cheat?" LINA Nico thought for a moment about how to answer. "I'm good and a cheat." JEN "Ohhh." She cracked a smile at that. "An honest liar, eh? That's a rare sort." LINA "I guess." Nico kept fiddling with his staff. "Do you need anything else?" JEN Larkin's smile vanished and she took up brushing her thumb along the knife edge again. "So eager to get rid of me? Aw. And that when I have something to offer you. A gamble, if you will." LINA "Well," Nico said. "Alright. What is it?" He had an open mind when it came to gambles, if the payoff was high enough. JEN "I want you to work for me." LINA "Um. Doing... what?" JEN "Well, that's the gamble. You don't know. But it'll be worth it. No goes hungry working for a Basha." LINA Nico bit the inside of his cheek. He'd overheard Tazu saying... some things about the Basha. "I think I'd need more details than that before I took on a job." JEN "Alright," Larkin said and finally put the dagger away. There didn't seem to be any more need for vague threats here. "When I say, you don't know, that means I down know yet. Me and... a friend, we're going to be the ones taking over what Bala left behind, and we need people for that. Good people, who can do a job while keeping their mouths shut. You..." She paused and appraised him. "Information gathering, maybe. Or enforcer, with that fire power of yours." LINA "Is that... a way of saying you want me to torture people for you?" JEN Larkin snorted out a laugh. "No, not necessarily. Are you squeamish or what?" LINA Squeamish? He didn't think he counted as squeamish, exactly. He'd done some pretty awful things to people; it was just... always when he could be sure they deserved it. "No," he said carefully. "But I don't want to hurt people just because someone else tells me to." JEN "Well, I'd also pay you." She tilted her head, considering the look he gave her, and added, "but there's also less personal things to do. Like I said, information gathering. The, eh, less gory kind. Or... " Larkin smirked and looked him over again. "it can be personal, if that's your style." LINA It would be nice to have some financial security, he supposed. He didn't like having to rely on Thea's hard work and Tazu's generosity all the time. "I could take work on a case-by-case basis, maybe?" he said. "I mean, um. What would you do to me if I refused to do what you asked?" JEN Larkin tapped her fingers against the hilft of her knife. "Come for you in the night, when you least expect it, drug you and drag you off to a warehouse somewhere in the shanty towns, where we hang you upside down until you either die of that or because of the pieces we're gonna cut off you to send to your sister." And then she laughed."Not gonna fucking pay you, that's what. And if you chicken out too often, you're out." LINA "Out as in...?" He drew a thumb across the front of his neck. JEN "Only if you can't keep your mouth shut." LINA Nico was pretty good at keeping his mouth shut. To demonstrate, he said nothing at all. JEN Larkin chuckled. "Now there's a gamble on my side, too, 'cause you've been pretty open to me about yourself, even though you don't know me. I didn't even have to do anything with this." She patted the knife in its sheath. "What're you gonna do once the next thug comes along and wants to have a little chat with you about me?" LINA "Well... if they get violent, I guess I'll kill them." JEN "Ha, like that answer. And you. I like you alot." She winked. LINA "Oh. Uh, thank you." He wasn't sure he liked her. She was quite frightening. "I guess we... have a deal, then?" JEN "Sure." Larkin pushed away from the wall and held out a hand. LINA Hesitantly, Nico reached out and took it. "When do you want me to start?" JEN "Eh, I don't have anything for you yet. But I'll get back to you." Larkin withdrew her hand and put both into her pockets. "Oh, and by the way. You'll not just be working for me, but for my partner Finch. I'm gonna introduce you some time." LINA Nico had the unsettling feeling that "some time" meant a time when he probably wasn't expecting it, perhaps in his bedroom again, whether he liked it or not. "Alright. Um. Well. Thank you. Do you need anything else?" JEN "You're not a chatty one, are you? Too fucking bad, I'd have liked to know more about you. How you cheat at gambling perhaps." LINA He thought for a moment. She'd criticized him, a little, for being open with her. She wanted to know he could keep secrets. "Yeah. I bet you would have." JEN Well, damn. She could've seen that coming. It gave her a weird feeling, though, like she'd made a mistake hiring this one. Obviously there was more going on with him than just a pretty face and a bit of a blast. Larkin tilted her head again, the bones of her neck cracking, and stepped in closer. From this distance, she had to look up at him but he seemed to sort to know when to laugh at short people, and when not. She lifted a hand and patted Nico's cheek. "Buddy, don't try to fuck with me. When I ask you something, you sing, alright?" LINA "You didn't actually ask me anything," he pointed out. JEN She kept staring him in the eye a moment longer, then cracked a teeth-baring smile. "Fine. Fucking fine. Tell me about your gambling. Or- you want me to say it as a question?" LINA Nico decided to ignore the snippy bit at the end. He decided not to say anything, actually, and just show her instead. He glanced around the room and settled on the bureau in the corner. He hummed thoughtfully, and one of the doors opened by itself, then closed again. JEN Larkin whistled. "Neat. That's gonna be all sorts of useful." LINA "It's not fool proof," he warned her. Though he didn't think she'd find that very concerning. JEN "Nothing is," she said with a shrug. "You'd be a fucking fool to think so." LINA Nico wasn't a fool, then; although by her definition, Tazu was. Frankly, she wasn't entirely wrong. Tazu did a lot of foolish things and usually just got lucky. Nico preferred to be more cautious. "Well," he said carefully, "is there anything else you need?" JEN Larkin took another step closer, narrowing her eyes at him. Needed? No... but wanted? He was a cute one, that was undeniable. Round face, full lips. She remembered how Azriel had had the same impression on her at first- adorable, naive, a plaything. And then he had turned out so much more. Maybe, if she tickled Nico a bit, he'd surprise her as well. So she moved a bit closer still, putting on a skewed grin, and poked a finger into his chest. "Tell you what, Nico. You did a good enough job answering my questions, so I'm gonna give you a free pass. Ask me something. Anything." LINA Assuming she was going to answer truthfully, this seemed like an opportunity he really shouldn't waste. He thought for a moment, trying to figure out what could be most useful to know. Aside from Nico's own natural curiosity about such things, Tazu was always telling him that the key to working with people, getting what you wanted out of them, was to find out what they themselves wanted. What they were after. "What do you want?" he asked. "What's your goal, in all this?" JEN "Hmm money. And enough power to keep it. And... cute boys." She winked. LINA He bit his lip. "What do you want the money for?" JEN Larkin opened her mouth to reply but then shut it and grinned. "Hey, I said you got one free. That's two." LINA Nico shrugged. "Your call." JEN "Hm. Alright." Fucking unfortunate. They could've had some good fun together, but if he didn't want to, she couldn't push it onto him. Larkin stepped away from Nico and towards the door. "I'll let you know when I need you. Good night, Nico Peika." JEN End Title: Natural Curiosity Summary: Larkin makes a dramatic entry into Nico's private room to ask him a few questions. Answers are given. Category:Text Roleplay